MONTREAL – Longtime federal politician Denis Coderre has jumped to a big early lead as votes are being counted tonight in the Montreal mayoral race.
Get live Montreal election results here.
The former immigration minister and populist political organizer for the federal Liberals holds an 18-percentage-point lead, with 41 per cent of the overall vote, although only a small fraction of the ballots have been counted so far.
READ MORE: Your guide to the Island of Montreal's 2013 municipal elections
Across Quebec, voters are hoping to turn the page on an era of scandal-ridden leadership in province-wide municipal elections.
Today’s elections come as the province’s Charbonneau Commission continues to hear testimony detailing a system of kickbacks and illegal party financing at the municipal level.
The longtime mayors of Montreal and the suburb of Laval were forced to step down a year ago amid corruption allegations.
Months later, their interim replacements resigned in scandal as well.
The election campaign in Montreal centered around issues of ethics and transparency but no clear leader emerged on those issues.
Coderre was the perceived frontrunner from the start, as a household name in Quebec. But he was dogged by attacks from his opponents on ethics issues, most notably his party’s ties to former members of the corruption-ridden, now-dissolved Union Montreal party.
With just over three per cent of the ballots counted, he held a sizable lead over Melanie Joly, a public relations professional.
Richard Bergeron, whose left-wing party has a strong presence in the city’s trendy Plateau neighbourhood, and economist Marcel Cote, are also in the running.
Meanwhile, in Quebec City, the city’s firebrand mayor, Regis Labeaume, has easily been elected to a third term with nearly three-quarters of the popular vote.
In total, there are elections in 1,100 cities and towns across the province.
Quebec’s minister of municipal affairs, Sylvain Gaudreault, issued a statement urging more Quebecers to head to the polls this time around.
During the last municipal election, in 2009, voter turnout across the province was around 45 per cent. In Montreal, it was 39 per cent.
But the early turnout results today appeared relatively low.
Get Montreal election analysis, commentary and results via our live blog here.
